


A Piece of the Pie

by lillianmmalter



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Gen, Rose Roberts is a Good Friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-13 21:30:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13579305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillianmmalter/pseuds/lillianmmalter
Summary: Peggy’s first day at the Manhattan SSR could have gone better. Fortunately, there are still friends to be made. Also, there’s pie.





	A Piece of the Pie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irisdouglasiana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irisdouglasiana/gifts).



> For [irisdouglasiana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/irisdouglasiana/pseuds/irisdouglasiana), who prompted: I am very open to whatever inspiration you have, though I'd strongly prefer a happy ending! I love themes about home/finding home, families of choice, and small acts of kindness that have big consequences. Doesn't have to involve a complex plot unless you feel like it.
> 
> Hopefully this makes you happy!
> 
> Thanks to [truth_renowned](http://archiveofourown.org/users/truth_renowned/pseuds/truth_renowned) for beta services and for sharing your some of your headcanons with me. I'd read that story if you decided to write it.

Peggy glanced around the ladies’ room, looking under the stalls and around that one odd corner. There was no one else there.

She allowed her eyes to close, her shoulders to drop. She let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a mournful sigh.

It wasn’t weakness if you were alone. It wasn’t weakness if you only indulged for a few moments.

“You look like you could use a slice of pie.”

Peggy looked behind her in surprise. Standing in the doorway with a sympathetic smile was the plump cover agent she’d met that morning. What was her name again? Rose? That was it.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re working upstairs with the boys. I’ve connected four calls so far today between agents taking bets as to how long you’ll last as a field agent. A couple of the other girls have connected at least another three. If they’re acting this bad with each other I can only imagine how they’re treating you to your face.”

Peggy straightened. “I see.”

It should not have surprised her as much as it did, nor should it have hurt so badly to hear that her new colleagues disdained her presence so much as to place bets on her failure. She’d had to fight for every scrap of respect she got during the war; it would have been nice for some of that respect to follow her here, even if only among a couple of people. It would have been nice to have an ally or two, never mind a friend.

“Like I said, you could probably do with a slice of pie,” Rose said. “My treat?”

“Thank you, but that won’t be necess–”

“I insist. It won’t be as good as what I could make at home with a couple hours and a half a pound of butter, but I know a place nearby that does a decent job. All different flavors. What do ya say?”

Rose was the first person all day to be genuinely welcoming. She was also the first one besides Colleen to actually smile at her. Peggy’s heart ached for some genuine friendship.

“All right,” Peggy acquiesced.

Rose’s smile somehow got brighter.

The pie place turned out to be an automat that didn’t quite understand what an automat was supposed to be. Blue and peach uniformed waitresses bustled from table to counter and back again. Only along the back wall did Peggy spot the familiar Bakelite cabinets displaying various food items for sale.

The two of them sat at a booth with good sightlines to the door and the kitchen. Rose let Peggy face the door with an understanding gleam in her eye. Peggy wondered how long she’d been at the SSR.

Before she could open her mouth to ask, one of the waitresses appeared beside them wielding a coffee pot and a smile.

“Can I get you ladies anything?” 

“Just coffee for now,” Rose said. “In a couple of minutes I’m going to introduce Peggy here to your pie selection.”

“Coconut cream’s good today,” the waitress said as she poured coffee into Rose’s mug. “So’s the peach, but I’d stay away from the cherry. I saw the cherries go in this morning, and they just didn’t look right. Weird shade of red.”

“Good to know,” Rose said, smiling in amusement. 

The waitress, Angie, her name tag said, turned to Peggy with an inquisitive look.

“Coffee is fine for me as well,” Peggy said.

Angie did a theatrical double take. “Are you English?” she asked.

“Yes, I am. I grew up just outside of London.”

“Well, how about that. You sure you wouldn’t rather have tea instead of coffee?”

“Coffee is fine.”

“You’re just saying that cause American tea is gross, aren’t you?” Angie teased, punctuating the end of the sentence with a light backhanded slap to Peggy’s shoulder.

Peggy blinked. “I never said–”

“It’s okay, I appreciate the politeness. Lord knows I don’t get enough of that from the rest of my customers. You’re a class act.”

Peggy blinked some more. “Coffee really is fine.”

Angie shrugged and filled her mug. “All right, English, if you say so. You need anything else just holler.”

Peggy turned back to Rose, who was already sipping from her mug.

“She’s quite something,” Peggy said.

“Mm. Trying to be an actress.”

“She has the energy for it.”

“When I was her age I’d barely have said boo to a goose,” Rose said. “I admire how women know their own minds these days. The war was horrible, but at least it got women out of the house and into the workforce.”

“But now that it’s over we’re meant to go back.”

Rose made a rude noise. “It took me 33 years to leave my parents’ house. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back permanently. And forget marriage. I don’t know about you, but I quite like being single in the city. Nobody to tell me where to go or when or what to spend my money on. I actually took a pottery class last week. Made this horrible little bowl not even fit to be an ashtray, but I had a blast making it.”

“Do you have an interest in pottery?”

“Not really, but a friend and I made a pact during the war to try anything once. We were both spinsters dying of boredom while we took care of our aging parents, and then Pearl Harbor happened. Everything changed overnight, and we took advantage of the situation to change too. Packed our bags for DC to take whatever war work we could get.”

“Is that how you started working for the SSR?”

“It is. They said they liked my typing.”

“You’re still here. They clearly liked more than just your typing.”

“True. I passed all my tests with flying colors. They’ve never promoted me beyond cover agent, though. I think you’re the only woman I’ve ever met who came in from the field.”

“Hopefully I’ll go back to it,” Peggy said, thinking of Chief Dooley’s exasperated sneer as he introduced her around to the other agents.

“For all our sakes I hope you do. I’ve read your file; you’re one of the best we’ve got.”

Peggy blushed, pleased, but demurred. She was sure that couldn’t be completely true even though she was very good at her job.

“How about some of that pie?” she said.

“Of course. It is why I dragged you here.”

Peggy followed Rose over to the wall to browse the selections. There seemed to be just about every kind of pie imaginable, all available by the slice. She spotted a plate with key lime on it and zeroed in.

“Good choice,” Rose said, beating her to the punch with her nickel. She stepped aside as Peggy opened the door to retrieve her pie. A moment later, Rose selected a slice of blueberry pie for herself.

“I grew to like key lime pie during the war,” Peggy said as they walked back to their booth. “A private decided to get cheeky with me one night and arranged to have an entire key lime pie delivered to me for dessert. His oh so clever way of calling me a limey as though it was an insult. The joke was on him, though, as that same night all the boys got to eat was steamed spinach with rather stringy chicken. And I had an entire pie to myself.”

Rose chuckled, digging into her own slice of pie. “That’s the sort of comeuppance that usually only happens in the movies.”

“To be fair to him, I did embarrass him terribly earlier in the week,” Peggy said, cutting a neat triangle off the tip of her slice of key lime and eating it. The tart sweetness of it exploded on her tongue in just the right way, tempting her to shove the entire thing in her mouth at once in order to go back for more. She settled for letting her eyelids flutter closed for a moment.

“What did you do?” Rose asked. It took Peggy a moment to remember the conversation.

“I punched him in front of the entire camp. Laid him out flat on his back in the dirt.”

Rose beamed at her. “He deserved it?”

“He called me Queen Victoria, then propositioned me.”

“He deserved it,” Rose said, nodding.

Peggy smiled at her. She took another bite and barely stopped herself from humming in pleasure. “Rose, this pie is amazing.”

“Isn’t it? There’s nothing like baked goods and pastry to lift the spirits.”

“You make it sound like you caught me crying in the lavatory.”

“A day doesn’t have to make you cry to be rotten.”

“I suppose that’s true. It’s nothing I can’t handle, though. I just need a little more time to prove myself to them.”

“If it makes you feel better, you’re not the only one they’re underestimating.”

“I know. If they had their priorities straight you’d be a field agent like me.”

Rose smiled at her. “You’re sweet. I actually meant Agent Sousa.”

Peggy cast her mind over all the new agents she’d met that day.

“He’s the one…”

“With the crutch? Yeah. Came here practically straight out of the hospital. If we were all still in uniform he’d have more fruit salad on his chest than half the agents you’re working with up there. He’s clever. Probably about as good an agent as you if everything in your file’s true, not that it’ll get him very far.”

“And why not?”

“He’s too much of a sweetheart. Doesn’t have the bloodthirsty ambition of people like Agent Thompson.”

“I don’t see how that’s necessarily a bad thing,” Peggy said, thinking of the blond agent with enough distaste it nearly put her off her pie.

“Oh, it’s not, but he won’t find any promotions out of it.”

Peggy held back a sigh.

“If only promotions always came to those who deserved them.”

Rose reached across the table, briefly squeezing Peggy’s arm before pulling away again. 

“Don’t worry, Peg. You’ll show ‘em. You’ve got the right stuff to knock their socks off.”

Peggy looked down at the crumbs on her plate with a smile.

Yes, she did. She would prove herself to her colleagues if it was the last thing she did. And in the meantime, she had a new friend. And a new place to get some damn good pie.


End file.
